Adam Sandler didn't exactly have the greatest 2014. Blended performed nowhere near the level of the actor's past big releases, and both of his recent attempts at more serious fair - Men, Women & Children and The Cobbler - got largely negative responses following their premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival. As though that weren't bad enough, now he has been declared the most overpaid actor in Hollywood for the second year in a row.
Forbes has released their annual list of stars who have been getting way too much money for under-performing projects, and Sandler has once again taken the top spot thanks to a ratio that sees him only earning he studios $3.20 for every dollar he is paid in salary. This is actually worse than his statistic from last year, which said that he was bringing in $3.40 for every dollar. That's definitely not great news for the comedian. What's more, Sandler's score is a good deal worse than anyone else on the list. Earning nearly a full dollar more for film investors and sitting at number two on the list is Johnny Depp - who has seen recent flops like Transcendence and The Lone Ranger severely hurt his score. You can see the full top 10, as well as their numbers, listed below:
1. Adam Sandler - $3.20 for every $12. Johnny Depp - $4.10 for every $13. Ben Stiller - $4.80 for every $14. Ryan Reynolds - $4.90 for every $15. Tom Hanks - $5.20 for every $16. Will Ferrell - $6.60 for every $17. Channing Tatum - $6.70 for every $18. Denzel Washington - $6.90 for every $19. Sandra Bullock - $9 for every $110. Ben Affleck - $9.37 for every $1
If you're confused as to why two huge stars like Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock would be on this list after so much success this past year, the strange answer is that the studios have become victims of their own success where those two stars are concerned. Forbes notes that the money actors earn on the back end of a film's release are factored into the methodology to determine who is underpaid, and this means that as a movie's profit soars, so does the actor's cut. Sony and Warner Bros. surely loved the success that they saw with movies like 22 Jump Street and Gravity, but they probably didn't love cutting huge checks to Tatum and Bullock. Still, as Forbes notes, this is a version of overpayment that they don't necessarily mind.
At the very least, Adam Sandler can perhaps take some solace in that his ratios haven't actually been the worst we've seen in recent years. Back in 2012 it was fellow Saturday Night Live alum Eddie Murphy who was being declared as Hollywood's most overpaid actor, and at that time he was only bringing in $2.30 for every $1 he was being paid in salary. Still, Sandler should definitely see this as a wake up call that he needs to start making some better, more memorable films.
